Team 1 (Shaikha Almajed, Asma Boughorbel, Abdulla Abualam, Sami Diab)

ENGL 210 - 504

Dr. Mary Queen
Technical Report Final Draft
Due Date: 18 April 2024

ABSTRACT
This report examines Qatar’s heavy dependency on natural gas as the primary source of
revenue. Relying on a non-renewable source is not ideal and can cause economic devastation,
when exporting countries transition to a more sustainable energy source.The procedure of
extracting and processing natural gas has a negative impact on the environment. It increases
carbon dioxide and methane emissions which significantly contributes to the greenhouse effect.

We conducted in-depth research into various academic databases to find peer reviewed
journals, articles and newspapers. Government websites were also used to find specific country
based information. We developed a criteria matrix based on categories most important to
Qatar’s context. Effectiveness, cost of implementation, environmental impact and feasibility
were taken into account. We identified three possible alternatives to natural gas that were
researched and then analyzed against the criteria matrix. The solutions analyzed were Wind
Power, Waste to Energy and Solar Power.

Solar Polar was chosen as the ideal solution for Qatar to maintain its economic status and
reduce carbon emissions. The transition to a more sustainable source will contribute to Qatar’s
2030 vision for a prosperous economy and environment.

1. INTRODUCTION
Natural gas is globally produced and used as an energy source. Many countries take advantage
of the abundant supply of natural gas that is available to extract from their lands and use it to
grow their economy and develop their country. Globally, Russia and Iran are ranked top two
with the most natural gas reserves in terms of world share with 24.3% and 17.3% respectively
(Worldometer, n.d.). Russia’s main focus is to export liquefied natural gas to non-European
countries like Turkey (CGEP, 2024) to maintain its spot in the natural gas industry. In terms of
natural gas exports, Russia is also the top exporter with the United States coming second
(Countries by Natural Gas Exports, 1970).

A major percentage of natural gas is exported however it is also used domestically. The most
popular uses of natural gas are electrical generation and heating (MET, 2020) in the US. In
2021, the US Energy Information Administration has estimated that around 34% of the total
CO2 emissions emitted in the USA are caused by the combustion of natural gas alone (eia,
2021).

People are now becoming more aware of global warming as scientific evidence shows the
dangers of using non-renewable sources like natural gas, oil and coal. This will result in a
decline in demand as trading countries like South Korea adapt green policies to have an
environmentally aware nation. Some policies include: Carbon Neutrality Act and the Clean Air
Act. Resulting in Qatar being vulnerable to economic collapse as it solely relies on natural gas
to maintain its economic status.

Since the 1970s Qatar has had its focus on utilizing its geographical location to its advantage.
As shown in figure 1, in terms of world share, Qatar has the third largest natural gas reserves
with 12.5% making natural gas, specifically liquified natural gas easily accessible in the northern
areas of Qatar (Worldometer, n.d.).

Figure 1: Natural Gas Reserves by Country in terms of World Share

Having an abundant amount of natural gas allows Qatar to be the third natural gas exporter with
18% in cubic meters (Countries by Natural Gas Exports, 1970). The natural gas industry brings
a sizable amount of income for Qatar and has been estimated to be around 70% of its total
government revenue in 2018 (Economy of Qatar, n.d.).
 Figure 2: Natural Gas Exporters by Country in Cubic Meters

Qatargas, a local gas company has constructed 14 liquified natural gas (LNG) trains which
started an immense production of 79 million m.t. This, recorded in 2015, was a third of the
world’s global LNG trade, making Qatar the largest supplier then. This indicates that world’s
demands are very high as well as Qatar has high reliance on this exportation.

To begin with, by the year 2026, it is expected to raise its LNG output to 142 million metric tons,
giving the consideration of an 85% increase. Moreover, Qatar also dedicates its time and effort
to increase its LNG production capacity by 2027. QatarEnergy and other companies under them
such as QatarEnergy LNG, Shell, Qafco, Qapco aim to spend billions to produce more natural
gas, with an approximate 64% increase. This aims to show how critical the natural gas industry
is in Qatar, as it aids 2.5 million people during the year 2022.

Qatar’s agreement with India’s Petronet and Bangladesh will lead to an increase in the world’s
natural gas supply by over 14%, which introduces that those factors are initially aligned with the
North Field Project that will rank Qatar the second biggest natural gas producer globally (Verma
N, 2024).

This substantial growth demonstrates Qatar’s heavy dependance on the natural gas industry,
which is essential to the country’s economy and export revenue; nearly 85% of export revenue
represents 40% of the country’s GDP. This reliance shows not only how crucial this industry is
to maintaining high living standards and economic stability, but also shows the environmental
issues, especially regarding CO2 emissions (IMF elibrary, 2024).
2. METHODOLOGY
2.1 Research
The TAMUQ library database was first used to do a preliminary search of new up to date
sources. It has an effective boolean search box to minimize unnecessary results. Many full
text peer reviewed articles, newspapers and scholarly journals were reduced by narrowing
down the year of publication. Newspapers are made of news articles that provided recent
general information on trends or current movements within the desired industry. It gave us
ideas on energy producing technologies that are now being developed. Scholarly journals
are made of scholarly articles. The information found is highly credible factual research that
was relied on as they were peer reviewed by professionals. After the preliminary search,
additional information was accessed from the references found from the previous searches.

Government websites were utilized to gain more information about the country of interest.
Certain statistics can only be trusted if found on a government webpage (.gov) without any
bias or self interest. Company websites were used to gain more information on the natural
gas industry in Qatar. QatarEnergy LNG is one of the biggest natural gas company in Qatar,
this is why it was used to find in-depth information on the natural gas operations and
statistics. Government and company websites were reviewed to check the accuracy of the
information recorded. This was a way to verify the credibility of the articles, newspapers and
scholarly journals and the details found.

2.2 Criteria Matrix

The chosen solution must be suitable and ideal for Qatar. Qatar is located in the east coast
of the Arabian Peninsula with an area of 11,521 km2(Facts about Qatar, n.d.) compared to
other major natural gas holders like Iran with an area of 1.648 million km2, US with an area
of 9.834 million km2 and Russia with an area of 17.1 million km2 (Largest Countries in the
World by Area, Worldometer, n.d). Due to Qatar’s smaller and desert geographical location,
this affects its availability on certain resources, equipment and manufacturing factories.
However, Qatar has the financial capacity to spend on diversifying its sources of
revenue.

Four criteria categories were selected to narrow down the options from the three possible
alternatives to the optimal one.

• Effectiveness: Is how much energy is being generated per day. It needs to have around
the same energy production as natural gas to maintain its function in the needed
quantity.

• Cost of Implementation: is how much it will cost to initially implement the solution.
Qatar’s dedicated budget needs to fit within the alternative solution without it costing
more to produce the same quantity of energy.

• Environmental Impact: is how much CO is produced in grams. The solution shouldn’t

2

contribute to the greenhouse effect by increasing the country's overall carbon emissions.
The alternative to natural gas has to be renewable.
 • Feasibility: Is to assess if the solution is relevant to Qatar and can be realistically
executed. The solution can’t be implemented if the resources and technologies needed
aren't available in Qatar such as particular climate, manufacturing factories and land
space.

Each criteria has different weights based on their importance to the solution and to the context
of Qatar. Effectiveness and Feasibility have the highest priority as the solution has to reduce the
dependency on natural gas by generating enough energy realistically in Qatar. Cost of
implementation has a lower priority as Qatar has the means to spend without affecting its overall
budget. Environmental impact has the lowest priority as climate concerns aren't taken into
account as much as the other criterias. This is to not put limitations on the possible alternatives
that can be taken into consideration.

Table 1: Criteria Matrix Rubric Results

Weight 30% 25% 15% 30%

Cost of Environmental
Solution Effectiveness Feasibility
Implementation Impact

Highly
Generates up to 500
$1.5 million and 130-160 grams of unrealistic with
2 kilowatt hour of
more CO per kWh major
energy per day
2

limitations

Somewhat
Generates up to
Between $1.3 and 110-130 grams of realistic with
4 1000 kilowatt hour of
$1.5 million CO per kWh weighty
energy per day
2

limitations

Generates up to Moderately
Between $1.2 and 40-110 grams of
6 2000 kilowatt hour of realistic with
$1.3 million CO per kWh
energy per day some limitations
2

Generates up to Realistic with

Between $1 and 20-40 grams of
8 3000 kilowatt hour of minor
$1.2 million CO per kWh
energy per day limitations
2

Generates up to Fully realistic

Between $700,000 0-20 grams of CO
10 4000 kilowatt hour of without any
2

and $1 million per kWh

energy and more limitations

3. RESEARCH FINDINGS
In this section, three possible solutions were presented on how they work and how they can be
implemented. This information will then be analyzed in the next section to choose the ideal
solution to be used in Qatar as an alternative to natural gas while maintaining its current
economic status.
3.1 Wind Power
Wind power in the simplest terms consists of using the kinetic energy of the wind in order to
generate power or work. It has been used throughout human history from applications such
as sails or windmills or modern applications such as wind turbines to generate electricity
(“Wind Power | Capacity & Facts | Britannica,” 2024). Wind turbines have rotating blades
which spin a generator inside the turbine, converting the kinetic energy into electricity. The
electricity generated is then transmitted down the turbine tower through internal cables and
integrated into the electrical grid for distribution to consumers (How Do Wind Turbines
Work?, 2024) a detailed illustration of the inside of a wind turbine is shown below in Figure 3
which shows how the rotating turbines convert the rotational energy into electric energy.
This makes wind turbines an infinitely renewable source of energy since the wind is not
exhausted or used up in the generation of electricity, and they have an extremely small
carbon footprint of just 11 grams of CO2 per kWh (How Wind Can Help Us Breathe Easier,
2023).

Power generation, the amount of power that is generated can be calculated using the
formula: P= 0.5Cp R2V3(Windy Physics: How Is Power of a Wind Turbine Calculated?,
2022). Wind speed is the most important factor in power generation and depends on the
climate and is unable to be changed through the design of the turbine, so a nation's wind
speed must be taken into account when discussing wind power. Due to the small carbon
footprint and the infinite availability of wind power, wind power has been gaining a lot of
attention and popularity in recent years. For example in 2022 the amount of electricity
generated by wind increased by 265 TWh which is the largest increase in history (IEA,
2024). Wind power also has a positive public perception where the majority of respondents
to surveys indicate a positive outlook towards wind power (Hamza et al., 2022). Due to
these factors wind power was examined further within our given criteria and the context of
Qatar.

Figure 3: The inside of a wind turbine (Inside of a Wind Turbine, 2019)

3.2 Waste to Energy
Facilities on waste to energy function thermally by managing waste to produce electricity.
Normally, these conversions of plants are designed to aid the flow of any town's solid waste,
utilizing burning, or anaerobic digestion. The amount of space required for waste to energy
plants varies depending on its energy recovery and how quick it processes the waste
reception. These facilities occur yearly and are mostly engineered to waste. This process
includes waste burning at an elevated temperature, which leads to generating steam that
drives turbines, concluding the transition from kinetic to electrical energy (Dr. Zhang,2023).
These procedures do not only shift towards renewable energy, but also lessens the volume
of waste, directing to both energy and waste management challenges.

The key to converting several types of waste materials into usable energy in fact contributes
to renewable energy that plays a role when it comes to overcoming natural gas in Qatar. For
instance, a carbon capture and storage facility, which is a part of the North Field project that
reduces gas emissions in the long run could open solutions to controlling waste and
converting into energy (Offshore Technology, 2022). In addition, Qatar’s dependency on the
economic perspective plays a role, since when talking about landfill maintenance, waste to
energy is cost effective since it changes waste materials to energy and by doing so, it
reduces the management cost.

As years pass by, Qatar has demonstrated that the level of work ethic has risen up on
managing waste better. By 2030, Qatar wants to recycle 95% of their waste, which is
remarkable considering they are currently around 54%. These innovations were held at a
conference called the 3rd Recycling Towards Sustainability Conference & Exhibition. As this
desire is substantial for the government, they are aiding by granting 153 pieces of land to
private companies focusing on recycling waste. This shows Qatar is committed to taking
waste materials to energy, in order to enhance the environmental aspect and manage waste
(Agnaztaa G, 2023).

By maintaining waste to energy projects, this act serves an example not only to showcase
their development, but also sets an example globally in sustainable development.
Furthermore, Qatar has revealed that they want to work with American companies related to
managing waste. They are initiating to build a facility to process 2300 tonnes of waste,
converting it into energy. However, only 5% of the waste leads to landfill, as mentioned
before within the carbon and storage facility, their aim is to decrease landfill maintenance. In
terms of tuition, it will cost approximately $1.07 billion and will be held by a company located
in Singapore called Keppel Segheres for 20 years (WEKA Industrie Medien GmbH, 2022).

3.3 Solar Power

Solar power is a process where solar radiation is converted into usable electricity using
photovoltaic conversion which occurs within solar panels (remote energy). Solar energy is a
major sustainable energy source, and has become an ideal alternative to non-renewable
energy. The efficiency of solar power will depend on factors that determine the output of
energy produced.

The first determining factor is the size of the panels. There is a wide range of sizes
depending on the users needs; in this case, for industrial large scale use, the three
commonly used sizes are 60-cell (39in x 66in), 72-cell (39in x 77in) and 96-cell (41.5in x
62.6in) (Solar Panel Dimensions, 2021).
Sun radiation also plays an important role in the energy output where, in order for the panel
to reach full efficiency, 1000 W/m of sunlight is required and this is only achieved by the
2

exposure to direct sunlight (Hyder, 2024). This indicates that the solar power output will
depend on the number of hours the solar panels are under direct sunlight. An environment
with a high number of uninterrupted sunhours is an advantage when using solar power.
Places with cloudy or foggy weather will reduce the hours of direct sunlight, deteriorating the
efficiency of the solar panels.

Climate is another crucial factor. The ideal temperature for solar panels to work at full
efficiency is 25°C, and the maximum temperature it can withstand is 65°C (newdaysolar,
2021). However, for every degree above 25°C, the efficiency of the panel decreases by 0.3-
0.5%, resulting in less energy output. Cooling or ventilation systems are set up for cases
where the temperature is above the optimum and this has proven to restore the solar
panel’s normal effectiveness level (ecoflow, 2023). Solar panels can function normally up til
a maximum of 140 mph of wind (newdaysolar, 2021). This means that winds higher than the
maximum can disrupt the function or even damage the panels. Humidity also plays a role in
the function of solar panels. Humidity attracts cloud coverage, this causes the water vapor to
reflect and scatter the sun rays or even absorb them. Indirect sunlight decreases the energy
output which reduces the efficiency of the panels.

Photovoltaic (PV) power plants are farms of solar panels which can contain up to thousands
or even millions of solar panels, utilized for large scale use (Union of Concerned Scientists,
2015). The most common watt quantity used for industrial purpose solar farms is megawatts
(MW) due to the requirement of large scales. A standard 96-cell solar panel generates 500
watts of power (‘How Efficient are Commercial Solar Panels?’, 2023 ). This size produces
around 2 kWh of electricity daily and around 731 kWh annually (‘500 watt Solar Panels’,
2022). A typical 1 megawatt (1 million watts) solar farm requires around 6-8 acres of land
space. Large land spaces are one of the main requirements to enable the installment of
thousands of 1 MW solar farms. This factor leads to the most important aspect, which is the
revenue that can be generated and will help with determining the approximate profit and
feasibility of the application.

The revenue from selling electricity produced from a 1 MW solar farm is approximately
$40,000 per year (Hyder, 2024). This is a considerably high price for a renewable and
sustainable energy source. It is unrealistic to compare the total natural gas generated
revenue to the revenue produced solely from a renewable energy source. However, it is
important to choose the optimum sustainable energy source to replace the pollution side
effects of natural gas and at the same time have the highest possible revenue. As for the full
replacement of the total revenue and income of natural gas, this will need to be achieved
through the implementation of many different profitable projects by Qatar, where a solar
farm project is one of them. Solar power and its efficiency are reliant on many different
climatic and geographical factors where Qatar’s conditions meet most of the requirements.
 Figure 4: Qatar’s sun hours distribution in 2023

4. ANALYSIS
Each solution was analyzed using the decision criteria in table one and assessed to find the
most suitable alternative in Qatar.

Table 2: Criteria Matrix

Weight 30% 25% 15% 30%

Cost of Environmental
Solution Effectiveness Feasibility Total
Implementation Impact

Qatar has a
3500 kWh of 1 MW turbine
Wind 11 grams of CO2 low wind
energy per day costs around $1.3 5.5
Power per kWh current of 3-19
per wind turbine million
mph

1 MW WtE Dependance
550 kWh per 1 tonne of waste
Waste to treatment plant on
hour for every produces 1-1.7 7.3
Energy costs $21.8 infrastructure
ton of waste tonnes of CO2
million and regulations

A 1 MW solar Relevant and

1 MW solar farm
farm (6-8 acres) applicable to
Solar costs between 40-100 grams of
generates 4,000 Qatar’s climate, 8.4
Power $890,000-$1.01 CO2 per kWh
kWh of electricity average of
million
per day 3440 sunhours

Ranking Scale 2 (worst) 4 6 8 10 (best)

4.1 Wind Power
4.1.1 Effectiveness
The wind speed in Qatar was then examined which is arguably the most important factor
due to the fact that power is proportional to the cube of wind speed. Wind speed in Qatar
was 6.56 knots in 2018 (MSL Pressure and Scalar Wind Speed, 2018) which is around
3.37 meters per second. This is extremely low as evident by the fact that the cut in
speed (minimum wind speed required to produce energy) is usually around 2.68 meters
per second to 4 meters per second (How Do Wind Turbines Survive Severe Storms?,
2017). If we look at a typical model for wind turbines such as the Siemens 2.3 MW, the
power produced at 3 m/s is a mere 66 kW. If we look at wind turbines with a lower cut in
speed such as the W2E-215/9.0 the power is still just 147 kW which only utilizes 1.6% of
the W2E-215/9.0’s 9,000 kW capacity.

4.1.2 Cost
If Qatar were to move towards wind power then it would have to invest in commercial
turbines which operate at low speeds which is risky and costly. Assuming all these
issues are resolved, wind turbines typically cost around $1.3 million per megawatt (Wind
Turbine Cost: Worth the Million-Dollar Price in 2022?, 2023) which means it would cost
approximately 400 billion to build 34,262 W2E-215/9.0 turbines to produce 50% of Qatar
electrical energy needs. At best they cost between 10-15 cents in maintenance and
operating costs for every kWh on average(Operation and Maintenance Costs of Wind
Generated Power, 2015) produced meaning they will cost approximately at least 2.2
billion dollars to maintain if they were producing only half of Qatar’s electrical energy
needs.

4.1.3 Environmental Impact

In terms of environmental impact wind turbines have an extremely small carbon footprint
of just 11 grams of CO2 per kWh. This is 90 times smaller than the carbon footprint of
natural gas (How Wind Can Help Us Breathe Easier, 2023) meaning that wind turbines
will drastically reduce Qatar’s carbon footprint. Wind turbines also don’t produce CO2 to
generate electricity in the innate mechanism as opposed to natural gas which always
produces CO2 when combusted so naturally wind turbines will reduce Qatar’s carbon
emissions.

4.1.4 Feasibility
Assuming a peak efficiency of 147 kWh the turbine will produce 3528 kWh everyday and
1,287,720 kWh every year. Considering Qatar’s energy consumption is 44.12 billion kWh
(Energy Consumption in Qatar, 2021) 34,262 W2E-215/9.0 turbines need to be running
at an impossibly high efficiency rate to meet Qatar’s demands. This hypothetical
demonstrates that it is an extremely unrealistic alternative to Qatar’s dependency on
natural gas. The wind speeds in Qatar are too slow

4.2 Waste to Energy

4.2.1 Effectiveness
As Qatar has merged multiple companies such as Shell, it shows waste on energy is
effective as it produces 550 kilowatt per hour for every ton of waste. This value
determines a good amount of waste is converted into a huge amount of energy.
4.2.2 Cost
In terms of cost, Qatar’s yearly projects are estimated from $1.07 billion to $2 billion.
Additionally, as Qatar also has maintained low cost in landfill, overall, it appears that
Qatar is benefiting according to the scale of income that is shown over the years. Not
only do these prices stand with projects, but also 1 MW of treatment plant costs $21.8
billion showing that waste to energy production levels are costly and not as effective as
other solutions.

4.2.3 Environmental Impact

However, when mentioning sustainability, waste to energy is not as efficient as other
factors. As shown in table 2, between 1 and 1.7 tonnes of CO2 of waste is converted.
The weight of this gas being emitted could cause burning fossil fuels, especially knowing
that Qatar has a bad reputation with environmental goals and carbon emissions.

4.2.4 Feasibility
The feasibility of waste to energy in Qatar is mainly dependent on their infrastructure and
regulations. This simply means that in order for waste to energy to be successful, there
has to be some kind of support that can handle the conversation from waste to energy. If
these orders are satisfied, waste to energy could solve all Qatar energy needs and beat
other energy solutions. Additionally, Qatar has a south field project in Mesaieed where
production levels are set to be at 50 MW daily.

4.3 Solar Power

4.3.1 Effectiveness
It is crucial to assess the efficiency and effectiveness of solar power as a suggested
alternative to Qatar’s current natural gas use. Different solar panel sizes have varying
energy production amounts. The size categories will depend on the users needs and
what scale is required for their use. For industrial scales, 1 MW solar farms are used
where one farm produces an average of 4,000 kWh of electricity per day. This amount of
electricity will rely on the factors that affect the conditions that the solar panels are in.
With Qatar having highly suitable climatic conditions, this will maximize energy
production. Qatar will be able to generate around 1.43x109 kWh of electricity per day
considering that around 3.57x105 1 MW solar farms can be installed in Qatar’s available
land space. From this generated electricity, Qatar will be able to comfortably supply local
electricity needs as well as satisfy global demands to an extent. An average house
requires around 1,223 watts (Benningfield, 2024). It has been estimated that Qatar
consumes around 44.12 billion kWh of electricity per year (worlddata, 2024). This proves
that with the electricity produced per day by the solar farms, it will be comfortable to
provide local supply and the rest will be sold globally.

4.3.2 Cost
The installation of a 1 MW solar farm which is around 6-8 acres of land space would cost
about between $890000-$1.01 million. Despite these values seem high, In comparison
to other renewable energy sources, this value is considered in the average range. The
maintenance on the other hand is low for solar power as the panels are fixed and do not
require movement to function.

4.3.3 Environmental Impact

 Around 40-100 grams of CO2 per kWh is produced by solar power which is 12 times less
than natural gas. These existing emissions are mainly due to the manufacturing,
installing process, maintenance, and the disposal of solar panels. However, these
emissions can be reduced by implementing ways of creating more long lasting and
durable panels, more sustainable disposal by manufacturing panels using materials that
can be recycled (solar, 2023).

4.3.4 Feasibility
Qatar has an average of 3440 hours of sunlight per year (weather-and-climate, 2023) in
comparison to Europe which has 2335 (climate.copernicus, 2019 ). High number of
sunhours is one of the main advantages that Qatar holds regarding the usage of solar
power. Climate is a crucial factor that affects the feasibility of implementing solar power.
Temperatures in Qatar can range from around 15°C to 49°C (visitqatar). With 25°C
being the optimum temperature that allows a solar panel to work at full efficiency,
installation within Qatar will require a cooling or ventilation system as the majority of the
months are higher than 25°C. High winds can disrupt the function and efficiency of solar
panels, they can function normally up til a of maximum 14 mph (newdaysolar, 2021).
Qatar’s wind ranges at about 3-19 mph throughout the year (urbanizedadaptation). Thus
Qatar’s wind climate poses no concerns to solar power use. To enable high energy
output and possible replacement of natural gas in Qatar, the implementation of solar
power would need to be executed at a very large scale, meaning that a large amount of
land space will be needed. This is the final factor to be assessed which will also
determine the approximate cost and feasibility of the application. A typical 1 MW solar
farm needs around 6-8 acres of land space and the revenue that this solar farm
generates would be around $40,000. In 2019, it was recorded that 89.68% (‘Qatar QA:
Bare Land:% of Total Land’, 2024) of the total 11,571 km2 (britannica) Qatari land is bare
land, mainly in the West region. If about 2.5x106 acres of the available land space is
dedicated to solar farms, around 3.57x105 of 1 MW solar farms can be installed. This
number of solar farms generates 1.43x109 kWh of electricity per day. The revenue
produced from this amount of electricity approximates to $14.3 billion per year. When
compared to the revenue of natural gas, it accounts for 10.83% of the current revenue.
The solar power revenue can be maximized with the usage of bifacial solar panels,
which are panels that absorb from both sides to increase the efficiency of the sun
radiation conversion (Sandhu, 2023). This revenue is considered high given that this is a
renewable energy source being compared to the world's third largest gas reserve.

5. DISCUSSION OF RECOMMENDATION
After extensive research on the suggested solutions, the three alternative energy sources were
assessed using the ‘Criteria Matrix’ where the four factors to be evaluated were, effectiveness,
cost of implementation, environmental impact and feasibility. It was ultimately decided that the
most effective solution is solar power.

There are many elements that should be considered to make solar power an efficient way of
generating power, either in the size and the strategic area of the land that will hold the solar
panels or the size of the solar panels themselves. To start, an area within Qatar must be
selected, as of now many of the power stations of Qatar are located and the edges of the
country borders such as, in Ras Laffan, Al Arish, Ras Abu Fanos and more (List of Power
Stations in Qatar, 2022). All these areas have bare land and are fit to be the home for solar
power stations. Installing solar farms near the existing power stations which currently run on
natural gas, it will be an easier and smoother transition to the maintenance sustaining the solar
farms.

For maximum efficiency, the area must have the optimal size of the panels considering all the
different variables, such as the wattage needed to power each panel. Using large sized solar
panels doesn’t necessarily mean that more power is generated, in fact, in such a hot climate
and with solar panels high sensitivity, a smaller sized panel are more durable in addition to a
cooling system, where either the 60-cell (39in x 66in), 72-cell (39in x 77in) should be used.
Having a large “power rating” and lower wattage are the most important when deciding the size
to be used (Does Solar Panel Size Matter? - Forme Solar, 2022).

The cost of such a project can be split into a total starting cost and maintenance cost of the
panels. Similar solar power projects can vary in cost, but a close comparison can be made with
a recent Qatari solar power project “AlKharsaah photovoltaic power project” (Al Kharsaah Solar
Power Project, n.d.) which cost around $462.3 million, and “Noor Abu Dhabi” (Noor Abu Dhabi |
Emirates Water and Electricity Company (EWEC), n.d.) solar power plant. The cost of the 5-
year old project was around $870 million for a single farm that covers the area of 8 square
kilometers (Noor Abu Dhabi, 2023). But overall, the installation of 1 megawatt solar farm which
is around 6-8 acres of land space would cost about between $890,000 - $1.01 million and the
maintenance cost of such systems can cost around $15 per kilowatt (How Much Does a Solar
Farm Cost in December 2023?, n.d.).

Our suggested implementation and its design make mid-sized solar panel farms scattered
around the country. For home use solar panels, it has been shown that smaller scale solar
designs are better than the larger sizes.

There are some constraints when it comes to implementing solar panel farms in Qatar. Being a
desert land can affect the efficiency of the solar panel. One of the biggest issues that face solar
panels in middle eastern countries is the dust that can cover the surface of the panels and lower
their efficiency with time, the design must consider the effects of weather on solar power farms.

Maintenance can be an issue when having a very large-scale design for solar panel farms, but
that can be avoided by having a strategic position of the farms and scaling down the size and
separating them into more stations.

Qatar has already experimented with solar panel farms with the AlKharsaah photovoltaic power
project. With Qatari companies like Qatar Energy and Kahramaa already having experience with
such projects in addition to their prior relations and collaborations with large global companies
such as Total Energies, Siraj Energy and more. This type of project will be a great step forward
and lowering the dependance on natural gas and securing a new way of generating power and
revenue for the country.
 6. REFERENCES
489. (2023, July 10). Qatar Waste-to-Energy Initiatives. Www.trade.gov. https://www.trade.gov/market-
intelligence/qatar-waste-energy-initiatives

500 Watt Solar Panels. (2022, November 30). Energy Matters.

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